ADVERTISEMENT

Interdog aggression can strike with deadly consequences

Dogs within the same household can become violent with each other. In
the case study explored this month, one dog is killed by another. The story
of these dogs illustrates the classic interdog aggression scenario and all
its misperceptions perfectly.

Readers should know that I did not see these dogs. All of my information
came from the owner of the dogs after the event. Accordingly, the format
will be a narrative, not a case report.

The story

The client wrote to me five days after the event because she was thinking
of euthanizing two of her dogs. The client shares a house with a roommate
and both have dogs. Prior to the tragedy the household consisted of: a 1.5-year-old
unspayed, female, Pembroke Welsh Corgi belonging to the roommate, a 12-year-old
male, castrated, hound-terrier mix that weighed about 70 pounds, a 45-pound,
7-year-old, female, spayed Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a 10-year-old, female,
spayed German Shorthaired Pointer belonging to the roommate, a 45-pound,
7-year-old, neutered, male Border Collie/Cocker mix, a 13-year-old, female,
spayed Cocker Spaniel, and a 3-year-old female, spayed Siberian Husky.

The first three dogs were the ones involved in the attack in which the
Corgi was killed. All of the dogs were in the three-quarter acre yard when
the attack occurred but none of the other dogs appeared to be involved.
In addition to being large, the fenced yard has a series of dog pens, kennels,
houses, etc. arranged in a way to ensure that each dog can have space and
can get away from others.

The client realized that there were many dynamics in what she termed
the "pack" behavior, so she provided detailed descriptions of
each dog.

Closer look

The German Shorthaired Pointer was "spoiled" early in life
and has developed a problem biting people, but not dogs, within the past
two years. She has lived with the client's dogs for two years and seems
to find security in being in the group. She is neither the most forceful
or most deferential dog in the group, but sometimes needs a little extra
space.

The Border Collie mix is totally "submissive" to the hound-terrier
mix. The Border Collie mix would occasionally get into "obsessive"
moods where he would posture over the hound cross and give him "the
eye". Otherwise, he appeared to be totally playful and outgoing with
the other dogs and with people. This dog has always been with the client
and the rest of the group since early puppyhood.

After the attack, the client gave the Border Collie mix to a friend because
she was afraid for him. Although he was not involved in the attack, she
did not understand what had changed so quickly and did not want to put him
at risk. And, as her friends had been saying, seven dogs is a lot and may
have been too many.

The 13-year-old Cocker Spaniel has always seemed to be on her own planet.
At the time of the attack she was almost totally blind and deaf. She had
also been with the client and group since puppyhood, and until a month before
the attack no one had ever seemed to notice her.

Savage attack

However, a month before the tragedy, the Corgi savagely attacked the
Cocker with no provocation that anyone could note. The Corgi drew blood
from the Cocker's ears and face before the client physically intervened.
The hound mix spent the next four days cleaning the Cocker's ears and babysitting
her. The client noted in her letter that she, unfortunately, just thought
this was "cute" at the time. She didn't see what the hound mix
saw: that the other dogs needed protection from the Corgi.

The Husky has always been outgoing, but like the Border Collie cross
was always "submissive" in the "pack". She apparently
tried to be everyone's friend. Even the older hound mix would run and play
with her. The Husky seemed to be particularly fond of the Corgi, and they
seemed to be "best buddies."

Three to four months before the attack the Corgi started to be very hard
on the Husky: games that seemingly started playfully ended with the Corgi
hanging from the Husky's throat. The Husky seems confused at first, but
after the Corgi hung from her throat a few more times, the Husky became
patently scared.

The client also noted that whenever the Husky and the Corgi engaged like
this, all of the other dogs moved and stayed away.

All of the client's dogs are kept in a 6-ft. by 24-ft. kennel with houses
and fans during the day if the weather is good. If the weather is poor,
they each have their own crates in the house. The client's dogs are separated
from the roommate's dogs when they are kenneled. At night they all sleep
on their own dog beds in the house. Each dog eats in his or her own crate.

There was only one exception: before the Corgi began to terrorize the
Husky, they both shared a giant run most times. After the Corgi began to
hang from the Husky's neck, the Corgi was moved into a smaller run next
to the Husky.

The client has always obedience trained her dogs and has had large groups
of dogs before. At one point she had eight Siberians and three other dogs,
including two of those discussed.

She has been involved in sled dog events and training, shown in conformation
and in obedience training. As part of these activities she met many people
with many dogs, and when a friend died, she took in her two old Siberians
a year earlier.

These dogs also live on the property, but not with the other dogs. The
inherited elderly female Siberian does not get along with other female dogs,
so the client kept these two dogs on an adjacent piece of land.

This was comprised of a 30-ft. by 18-ft. "habitat" with a 10-ft.
by 12-ft. building, pool, etc. While her dogs ignored both of these elderly
Siberians, she was not willing to expose her roommate's dogs to them directly.

At about a year of age the Corgi began to run the fence line separating
her from the elderly Siberians and barking non-stop. The client responded
by starting to train the Corgi in some basic obedience, but stopped when
she became busy at work. As the running and barking continued unabated,
the rest of the dogs were becoming unnerved by the constant commotion. So,
the client tried a shock-based, bark collar for the Corgi. This approach
lasted a week, since the Corgi only seems confused by it and began to direct
aggression to other dogs.

Torment began

In the month prior to the attack, the client noticed that the Corgi really
began to torment the Bull Terrier. Any time the client was not directly
present, the Corgi went after this dog. As soon as the dogs were let outside,
the Corgi bit at the Bull Terrier's heels, feet, face and throat. The Bull
Terrier snapped at the Corgi once, but usually she redirected her attention
to the Husky, snapping and clicking her teeth, but never making contact.
The client noted that while she has allowed her dogs to settle things among
themselves in the past, she has never allowed them to have a knock-down,
drag-out fight.

The client noted that if she had to pick an "alpha" dog from
the group, before the attack, she would have picked the 12-year-old hound
mix. He likes peace, and she described him as a "quiet enforcer."

On the night of the attack the client returned home a little later than
usual. It had been cold, so the dogs had been in their runs. It was too
dark to see well when the client let the dogs out of their runs. This concerned
the client because the first 10 minutes when they were out was the time
of biggest upheaval.

Because of her compromised ability to monitor them, the client put the
Bull Terrier on a leash and let all dogs out in the order she always did.
After 10 minutes, everyone had settled down so the client took the Bull
Terrier off the leash. All the dogs then "piled up" at the back
door for dinner. The porch light was on, so the client went into the house
to make dinner for all the dogs. After about 20 minutes she went outside
to let the dogs in, but didn't notice anything until they had all zipped
into their crates and the Corgi was missing. The client went into the yard
to look for her and found her outside the back door, dead.

A check of the other dogs revealed that the Bull Terrier has some cuts
that looked like teeth slashes inside her nostrils, some smaller cuts on
her head, and blood on her collar.

The hound mix was covered in blood - his muzzle, the top of his head,
both of his ears - but the blood was not his and there wasn't a mark on
him.

The client called her sister and had both of these dogs taken to a kennel.

The Corgi, when examined, had bite marks on her chin and tongue, and
five to six deep punctures on her throat.

What happened here?

How could something go so wrong in a household that had done so much
in order to meet each dogs' needs?

Quite simply, the Corgi was changing - behaviorally, neurochemically
and socially - as she reached social maturity (theoretical mean ~ 18-24
months; range 12-36 months). The Bull Terrier noticed it, and the Husky
noticed it, and changed their behaviors as a result of it.

The client noticed it too, but not in the way that the dogs did. Simply,
the hound mix, the dog the client felt wanted peace, protected the Bull
Terrier from what was like an offensive attack by the Corgi.

He had shown signs of intervening to stop the Corgi's obnoxious behavior
toward the other dogs before: remember his care of the Cocker?

All the information necessary to understand this tragedy is contained
in the client's descriptions. So many of her comments highlight myths and
problems in interpretations about canine behavior that it are worthwhile
addressing next month one-by-one.